Dave this isn't difficult
For chuff's sake, Dave. If the presenter of the Today programme is spotted sitting down in Burger King enjoying the delicious hamburgers, then that's not news. If, on the other hand, the chief executive of McDonalds is seen in Burger King enjoying the delicious hamburgers, then that's news. It's rather like if the News Corporation were to employ an editorial columnist who spent all of his time banging on about how he regards the BBC's Today Programme, the Guardian and unnamed "left wing magazines" as the really crucial venues of British public debate ... sorry bad example. Did you know that in the Coca-Cola head office for the UK, they have all sorts of euphemisms for Pepsi, because you're not even allowed to mention Pepsi there? I'm not sure this is true, but someone once told me it in a pub. Anyway, surely the point is that while Ruth Kelly has a clear parental duty to do the best she can by her son, and nobody would criticise her for that, she has no such duty to remain Secretary of State for Education.
Massive bonus Aarospotter points, by the way, to anyone who can provide evidence of Aaro knowing "the difference between setting and streaming" earlier than, say, last week. I certainly only found it out then, because I think there was an article in the Saturday Guardian castigating people for not being clear about it. Or maybe the Observer (which I notice didn't carry the Nick Cohen column, what's up with that?). Anyway, my point is that I'm not feeling guilty about not knowing the difference between setting and streaming precisely because I have not accepted a public role in which it is important.
A bit of a backlog has built up, I note ... I'll try and clear it.
Update: Ruth Kelly got moved out of Education a couple of reshuffles ago, didn't she, now I come to think of it. Though I note that as Equality Secretary For Everyone Except Gays she was no keener on eating her own cooking. She's now Secretary of State for Communities. Me neither.
Massive bonus Aarospotter points, by the way, to anyone who can provide evidence of Aaro knowing "the difference between setting and streaming" earlier than, say, last week. I certainly only found it out then, because I think there was an article in the Saturday Guardian castigating people for not being clear about it. Or maybe the Observer (which I notice didn't carry the Nick Cohen column, what's up with that?). Anyway, my point is that I'm not feeling guilty about not knowing the difference between setting and streaming precisely because I have not accepted a public role in which it is important.
A bit of a backlog has built up, I note ... I'll try and clear it.
Update: Ruth Kelly got moved out of Education a couple of reshuffles ago, didn't she, now I come to think of it. Though I note that as Equality Secretary For Everyone Except Gays she was no keener on eating her own cooking. She's now Secretary of State for Communities. Me neither.
posted by The Rioja Kid at 1/09/2007 08:04:00 AM
5 Comments:
The poor guy's really out on a limb today. He must have submitted that pretty late as the story didn't really break until yesterday.
It's the usual stuff, isn't it? Politicians are never hypocrites - well, only the left-wing ones - the press always are (me excepted of course).
Can anyone parse the paragraph starting with "A report for the Sutton trust ..."? He seems to be saying that he both 'attended [a] comprehensive school' and was 'schooled in the private sector' (like Ruth Kelly - though I'd say she was more the other way around).
Labour Party Manifesto 2005, p 38.
Children with special educational needs require appropriate resources and support from trained staff. For some this will be in mainstream schools; for others, it will be in special schools. Parents should have access to the special education appropriate for their child. It is the role of local authorities to make decisions on the shape of local provision, in consultation with local parents.
Is the bit about 'I have and need no excuses' (for his decision to send his child to private school) a joke, as his column justifying it was full of excuses. Furthermore given it was also an attack on Oliver Letwin, from a position about as hypocritical as can be, this piece seems even stranger.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/britainsschools/story/0,8224,1061131,00.html
Ruth Kelly's current department is what used to be known as the ODPM, but without the DPM. 'Equalities' still comes within her remit, I think.
There seems to have been much less kerfuffle over this than when Harriet Harman sent her child to a grammar school back in the day.
There was, to my mind, a very good - and touching - piece in Saturday's Torygraph mag Class action:
Barrow Hill's intake includes children from those socialist/egalitarian parents who own the multi-million-pound properties of St John's Wood and Primrose Hill but prefer not to send their children to private school, and others from some of the worst of Westminster's council housing.
So some people aren't like DA and Ruth Kelly.
Massive bonus Aarospotter points, by the way, to anyone who can provide evidence of Aaro knowing "the difference between setting and streaming" earlier than, say, last week.
I've no evidence for the contention, but I'd guess he knew the diference very well until about 1998.
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